Sounding the charge: Coalition opposes insurer's conversion

Anesthesiologist Bert Coffer, MD, is using his political connections to fight for-profit conversion of the North Carolina Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.

By Robert Kazel, AMNews staff. Feb. 24, 2003.

The anesthesiology group of Bert Coffer, MD, severed its contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina rather than accept what it considered low rates. For most practices, that move would be bold enough.

But Dr. Coffer, because of a longtime association with Republican Jesse Helms, recently retired from the U.S. Senate, had enough political acumen and connections to do even more -- lead an effort to derail the insurer's attempt to convert to a for-profit company, as has happened with Blues licensees in at least 13 other states.

Dr. Coffer's opportunity has come through a group called the ProCare Coalition, which last spring was started by pharmacists who were also angry about reimbursements from the Blues plan. The group invited Dr. Coffer to serve as co-chair, and in the space of six months he has raised money, helped hire two lobbyists -- one Republican and one Democrat -- and organized a series of radio advertisements to try to convince the public that a Blues conversion would be unhealthy for North Carolina.

"I tell it like it is, and I don't beat around the bush," Dr. Coffer said. "I'm basically a good old Southern boy who's a straight shooter and works hard."

The hope is to dissuade Jim Long, the state insurance commissioner, from approving a conversion, although a spokeswoman for the commission said the decision might not come down until March or even later.

While portraying ProCare as an insignificant group of malcontents, the Blues plan is not letting its message go unchallenged. The plan has launched an advertising blitz of its own, including a Web site opposing the group. A full-page ad in the Raleigh News and Observer said ProCare was "a narrowly focused special interest group." An anti-ProCare TV commercial paid for by the North Carolina Blues, complete with scenes of smiling doctors and happy mothers holding babies, portrayed the insurer as standing in the way of those selfishly seeking to raise the cost of care.